Governor Hickenlooper announced this morning that Colorado will be joining the US Climate Alliance. This state led coalition was formed in an effort to continue fighting climate change without federal support, after President Trump withdrew the country from the Paris Climate Agreement.
In Colorado specifically, the state aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent from 2005 levels by 2025, which actually exceeds the Paris Agreement’s parameters.
Today’s announcement which was made at a press conference at Red Rocks, was met with high praise from Western Resource Advocates, an environmental advocacy group.
In a news statement, WRA President Jon Goldin-Dubois said, “The Governor’s leadership in reducing emissions in our state, joining with other states across the country through the Climate Alliance, demonstrates that we take climate impacts very seriously.”
Yesterday, Trump’s commission to investigate voter fraud by collecting registered voters’ information, put its state data collection efforts on hold. In Colorado, Secretary of State Wayne Williams was originally supposed to submit all of the information by July 14th, but that deadline has now been indefinitely removed.
A lawsuit filed against the administration by the ACLU, the Electronic Privacy Information Center or EPIC, and Public Citizen caused the pause in operations. The ACLU takes issue with the commission not being open to the public and EPIC says the commission failed to provide a privacy impact statement regarding this probe and has not proven that it can safely collect voter information.
Trump called for this voter fraud investigation after he claimed that millions of people voted illegally in the presidential election, an assertion with no supporting evidence. In fact, voter fraud rarely happens in the United States.
In an effort to prevent their information from being shared, about 300 Coloradans have so far withdrawn their voter registration. Many planned to re-register after the July 14th due date, but with that uncertain deadline, many voters are wondering what to do. There is an option to request confidential status, but the situation is still up in the air.
Elections offices told the Colorado Independent that the most important this is to stay registered to avoid disenfranchisement.
Tonight, the Erie Board of Trustees will hold a meeting to consider an emergency ordinance regarding the town’s public health and safety codes. The ordinance arises as a response to complaints against oil and gas odors.
This measure exemplifies local municipalities vying for more local control regarding the oil and gas industry.
According to the code amendment’s language, it would be “unlawful” for “any person, tenant, occupant or property owner to permit the emission of odor from any source to result in detectable odors that leave the premises and are detected by a reasonably prudent person with a normal sense of smell … ”
If approved, local police would investigate violations, which would achieve greater local level power.
The meeting will be held this evening at 6 pm at Erie’s town hall, 645 Holbrook Street.
